J. A. Powell, Jr.
Since my last column, I have been questioned about my education in American literature. Most have expressed shock that I knew anything about Edgar Allen Poe, much less anything as obscure as The Purloined Letter. I had a high school teacher who loved Poe, and I remembered the Prefect in the story. I could not find my Poe book from 20 years ago so I used the Internet to find the quote. Poe's complete works can be found on the Internet.
This article will be a conglomeration of random notes that I have gathered since my last article.
If you will remember, we are studying the possibility of going paperless. Most of the larger insurance companies are paperless. When you call Geico and the adjuster refers to the file, they are actually looking at the computer screen. We have exhausted our long term storage and someone in our firm must take the time to go through those files and purge the old ones so that we can continue to close newer files. If we were scanning our files, we could keep them indefinitely.
I had hoped that we would be ready by now to start the process of scanning in our documents but I still have a few issues to resolve. I have to write the rules for the documents to keep and those to scan and throw away. Some documents must be original such as a will. Also, I have to devise a naming scheme for the documents scanned. For instance, if I have seven medical reports from Dr. John Doe, do I create seven different files named Doe1, Doe2, etc., or do I put all of the reports in one file and name it DoeReports? If I put these reports in one file, what happens if I get another report?
Once these issues get resolved, I plan on our firm beginning the process of scanning all of our files. I hope that by the summer, if any of you come to our office for a deposition, you will see me on the other side of the table with no file but a laptop computer plugged into the wall. I will be reviewing the file as the deposition proceeds. (No, I will not be playing solitaire.)
I recently purchased a laptop for my paralegal. She now can take her work with her. At first I was doubtful that she would use it but I have been pleasantly surprised to see that she is using it at times when she did not need to. Recently, she went on a short vacation to the mountains. We had a big case coming up so she downloaded the client's file including copies of the depositions to her laptop and wrote the deposition summaries while traveling in the car.
If you are thinking about replacing your desktop machine, you may want to consider buying a laptop instead and using it on your desk. The machines have become almost as powerful as the desktop machines. My laptop has a Pentium 100 processor, 16 megabytes of ram, 800 megabyte hard drive, a 6 speed CD-ROM, and a 28.8 modem. I am considering replacing my desktop machine with this laptop so that I can save space on my desk. I have not had the time to transfer everything but I hope to do so in the next month or so. The price you pay for a name-brand laptop with these features is less than $2,000.
I get the most questions about the Internet. Here are a few of the questions and my opinions:
1. Why do I need the Internet? You don't need the Internet or most of the other tools in your office. I know of a lawyer who practices law without a telephone! However, if you regularly fax documents or send letters by FedEx, then eventually you will need access to the Internet. I believe that e-mail will become as common as the fax or FedEx envelopes. E-mail is a message and/or document sent over the Internet. I can send a formatted WordPerfect document to someone on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds. I have found that most of the big law firms in Atlanta are e-mail capable. (E-mail is only part of the Internet. The World Wide Web and ftp sites are the other major parts of the Internet but will not be discussed here.)
2. How do I get on the Internet? The easiest way to access the Internet is to call one of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). We use Mindspring in Atlanta as our ISP. ATT and other companies also provide Internet service. Some companies such as Mindspring will provide you with all of the software and the instructions that you need to get online. You will also need a modem. If you are on a network in your office, you can share modems. For instance, we have only two modems serving about ten users that need access to the Internet. When I need to call out I start up my Internet software and the network automatically selects one of the available modems to use.
3. Can everyone in our office have an e-mail address? Yes. All of the attorneys in our firm have their own e-mail address. My address is mmlp-jap@mindspring.com. Jerry Marshall's address is mmlp-jbm@mindspring.com.
A few months ago, I told those of you that do bankruptcy work about the ability to call in to the clerk's office and check on your cases. Now the trustee's office has that same ability. Call the trustee's office and tell them that you want to be able to call in with your computer. They will send you a package of material that will tell you how to dial up. Maybe someday, other courts will have this feature.
If you want to speed up your computer, install more memory. right now, memory prices are at an all time low. Eight megabytes of ram is about $40. Especially if you are using Windows 95, adding more ram will give you a noticeable increase in speed.